In its last opportunity to pick up a win against a conference opponent this year, the UW women's tennis team came up empty with a 0-4 loss to Purdue in the opening round of the 2007 Big Ten Women's Tennis Championship Tournament held Thursday in Minnesota.
The 11th-seeded Badgers dropped the first four points of the afternoon against the 6th seeded Boilermakers, and as a result, the final three matches were not played out. The loss effectively ends the season for the Badgers.
Wisconsin started off on a low note, giving up the doubles point for only the second time in the past seven matches. The No. 56 pair of senior Caitlin Burke and sophomore Liz Carpenter, who had won six consecutive matches together, fell in the No. 1 match against Purdue's No. 57 duo of Mallory Voelker and Brooke Beier. Senior Kaylan Caiati and junior Nicole Beck also fell in the No. 2 match to Purdue's Cigdem Duru and Neela Vaez. The lone victory for the Badgers all afternoon came in the No. 3 doubles, where junior Chelsea Nusslock and freshman Kim Roberts overcame Alejandra Boeker and Anna Dzeva 8-6.
In singles, Purdue jumped out a 2-0 lead when Duru defeated Nusslock at the No. 4 spot 6-1, 6-0. In the ensuing match, the 6-1, 6-2 loss by Caiati against Beier put the Badgers in a dire position. Junior Morgan Tuttle gave the Badgers a glimmer of hope at the No. 5 spot, pushing her first set to a 7-5 loss against Dzeva, but could not come up with a win, dropping her second set 6-2.
Despite good starts at the No. 1, No. 3, and No. 6 spots, Wisconsin could only have finished with, at best, a 3-4 record on the day—the same score that the Badgers finished with in their previous five conference matches.
The season ending loss leaves Wisconsin with a final record of 4-17 overall and 0-11 in Big Ten matches, the worst record UW has had under the tenure of head coach Patti Henderson. Although this season had its high points, including a 2-0 record to start the season and a No. 31 ranking for singles ace Burke, the team's inability to come up with a single conference win ultimately led to its demise.
Next year, the team must regroup without the leadership of Burke or Caiati and try to once again become a force in the Big Ten. The torch will be passed on to Nusslock and fellow junior Nicole Beck, as Henderson tries to coach her team into a postseason berth next year.
